My years serving first as a hospice chaplain and now as a local church pastor have taught me a few things. First among them is that I should trust mothers. Mothers make harrowing and difficult decisions to protect their families every day. Mothers are keenly aware of the resources they have and how far those resources can be stretched to still give their children the lives they deserve. Mothers are not perfect, but most mothers try. They want to make sure their children grow up with love, with good role models, and with a healthy mix of compassion and discipline. I know that I should trust mothers.

It is not at all clear to me that Judge Brett Kavanaugh trusts mothers. In praising Justice William Rehnquist’s dissent in Roe v. Wade, it seems more likely that he believes the government has the right to overrule mothers’ decisions about what is best for their own families. Given that our current president has also made clear that he would only nominate justices who would dismantle the constitutional rights that ensure that mothers are free to make their own decisons about their bodies in conversation with their partners and doctors, I don’t know why I should believe that Judge Kavanaugh is ready to protect mothers. Our senators need more time to review his records. A lifetime appointment merits an examination of a lifetime of work.

Mothers’ lives are at risk. It is worth our senators’ time to protect them.

The Rev. Christina Cataldo

Sidney


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